Ad of the week: Laboured campaigning

Background The next general election campaign is upon us already and there's still a possible 18 months to go. Labour, however, doesn't see it like that and last week fired the first salvo through its new agency: a poster campaign that aims to remind people why they voted Labour. Ironically, the ads break in a month when political advertising is under the spotlight as never before.

What happens These new Labour posters are designed to remind voters of Labour's achievements. If they have one virtue, it's that they're not aggressive. Instead, since it's bad form to boast, the ads applaud the voters. "Thanks to my dad," says one featuring a boy sucking a lollipop, "the NHS has 10,000 more nurses." In another a young woman says: "I'm responsible for the lowest inflation in 30 years." Both ads carry the endline "If you voted for change in 1997 - thank you."

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Comment The thinking behind the ads is simple: to shore up the floating vote. Trouble is, this is nauseating and sanctimonious stuff, as insincere as those old film shots of Soviet leaders applauding the workers. False modesty and gratitude don't work.